No Bids Received To Lease Alley

State To Decide On Restarting Process

The Florida Department of Transportation received no proposals to lease the road by Monday's 4 p.m. deadline.

Six foreign-based teams expressed interest in the lease last year. One dropped out in November because of the global recession. The others asked for more time to shore up financing with lenders.

The state's next step will be deciding whether to restart the bidding or pull the plug.

"We're going to look at all of our options," said Kevin Thibault, the DOT's assistant secretary for engineering and operations.

Officials also must weigh what to do about upcoming toll increases that were part of the proposed 50-year lease.

Plans called for tolls to go up to $3.75 cash, or $3 with SunPass, starting July 1 - and annual increases of 3 percent or the rate of inflation, starting in 2011.

By law, the state must adjust tolls to the rate of inflation every year by 2012.

Either way, a toll increase is coming. The only question is when.

Faced with declining gasoline tax revenue, Florida officials have proposed leasing some of the state's transportation assets to raise cash, following the lead of places like Indiana and Chicago that made billions from deals to sell road leases.

In Florida, the idea generated anger from local officials and residents who saw the lease as giving away assets paid for by taxpayers, even though the state insisted it would still own the road and control the toll rates.

Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4155.